Svante Pääbo: The man rewriting human evolution

He has already revealed that early humans interbred with Neanderthals and discovered a whole new type of hominin from its DNA alone. Now Svante Pääbo is setting his sights on even more exotic discoveries. He tells Alison George why he thinks the bombshells will keep coming

Last year you revealed a previously unknown type of hominin, called the Denisovans, from DNA in a pinkie bone found in a cave in Denisova, Siberia. Tell me about this.We knew people had lived in this cave, but thought they were either Neanderthals or modern humans. When we sequenced the DNA, I was in the US so a postdoc called me to tell me the results. He said: "Are you sitting down?" because it was immediately clear this was some other form of human; not a Neanderthal, not a modern human. We were totally shocked.

This is the first time that a new ...

To continue reading this article, subscribe to receive access to all of newscientist.com, including 20 years of archive content.

To continue reading this article, log in or subscribe to New Scientist

App + web

Web

Smartphone

Tablet

$25.99 - Save 65%

12 issues for $2.17 per issue

with continuous service

Print + web

Print

Web

$28.99 - Save 61%

12 issues for $2.42 per issue

with continuous service

Print + app + web

Print

Web

Smartphone

Tablet

$39.99 - Save 73%

12 issues for $3.33 per issue

with continuous service

Web

Web only

$49.99

30 day web pass

Prices may vary according to delivery country and associated local taxes.